The Death of Democracy in the Waikato Regional Council

On reading the agenda for the, Waiora Co-Governance Committee Meeting which was scheduled for Friday, 4 April 2025, I saw in the terms of reference that this committee was established under the requirements of Section 46(2)(c) of the Waikato-Tainui Raupatu Claims (Waikato River) Settlement Act 2010 and others.

It also stated in the agenda that this Committee facilitates a Co-Governance arrangement, enabling the Council and the five River Iwi to implement the relevant provisions of the legislation (copy of the relevant section below).

        Waikato-Tainui Raupatu Claims (Waikato River) Settlement Act 2010

                Section 46

                Part 2     The part of the joint management agreement on preparing, reviewing, changing, or varying a Resource Management Act 1991 planning document must provide—

                                Section c:               that the local authority and the Trust must decide jointly on the final recommendation to a local authority on the content of a Resource Management Act 1991     planning document to be notified under clause 5 of Schedule 1 of the Resource Management Act 1991:

Whilst I am not a Lawyer nor do I profess to be so, I am of the opinion that there is a huge difference between Governance and Management. The Settlement Act mentions many times, “Joint Management Agreements”, but does not mention anywhere “Co-Governance arrangements.

If one looks at the meaning of Governance and Management it is obvious that Governance is the act or process of governing or overseeing the control and direction of something (such as a country or an organization) and Management is the process of organizing, leading, controlling the human resources, financial, physical, and information resources of an organization to reach its goals efficiently and effectively.

The terms of reference also include a statement under section 3 that says this Committee is responsible for the promotion of the principles of co-governance.

The claims for a Co-Governance position are largely based on the erroneous belief that there was a partnership created under the Treaty of Waitangi, between Iwi and the Crown, which gave Iwi the right of co-governance.

This claim of a partnership and the associated right for co-governance has also been supported by a wilful misreading of the 1984 Court of Appeal decision in the Lands case.

The claim of Partnership between the Crown and Maori under the Treaty of Waitangi is nothing more than a dangerous, divisive attempt to gain advantage based on race, which will end in the destruction of democracy in New Zealand. We will not improve anything by introducing privilege based on ethnicity other than to cause further increase in racial division within New Zealand.

In December 2024, Waikato Regional Council resolved to formally establish a combined co-governance committee for Waikato, Waipā River and Ngā Wai o Maniapoto River and their catchments (the Waiora Co-governance Committee) to give effect to river settlement legislation and associated Joint Management Agreements (JMAs).

The committee has responsibility for making recommendations to Council on the Freshwater Policy Review within the Waikato and Waipā River catchments and Ngā Wai o Maniapoto Rivers.  

The coalition Government has announced significant changes to resource management legislation, which began with the repeal of the Natural and Built Environment Act and the Spatial Planning Act in December 2023. The repeal Act extended the date that councils are required to notify freshwater planning changes from December 2024 to December 2027. The Government has also indicated that they intend to replace the NPSFM 2020 by 2027.

The Government announced it will replace the RMA with two new pieces of legislation, a Natural Environment Act focusing on management of natural resources and a Planning Act focused on planning to enable development and Infrastructure.

This process of replacement has already begun and the date for Councils to notify freshwater planning changes has been extended from December 2024 out to December 2027, so there is no reason for the WRC to rush the establishment of this committee.

It is my opinion that WRC does not have a legal mandate to implement a system of co-governance such as that proposed with the formation of this committee.

Given the lack of consultation with the ratepayers in regard to the formation of this committee, the powers that are proposed to be transferred to this committee and the lack of knowledge regards the final compilation of the proposed new RMA legislation, the WRC should put the formation of this committee on hold until more information is available in regard to the new legislation and further consultation is carried out with the ratepayers.